Foreign rights : Gallimard. 

Translation grants : Canada Council for the Arts.

 

Gens du Nord intermingles two stories set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1968-1998). In 1991, Samuel Gallagher, a writer advocating a united Ireland, close to the IRA, is kidnapped by a unit belonging to a Northern-Irish Protestant paramilitary group. But his execution is deliberately botched by a British undercover agent, and Gallagher is left for dead. Shortly afterwards, during a party organised in France by the Canadian diplomatic mission, François Le Bars, a journalist close to the French secret service, meets Anne Kelly, a film director from Quebec who is interested in Gallagher's disappearance. 

A remarkable novel, both sharp and detailed, offering incredibly compelling scenes which revive the dark years of the Irish struggle and its multiple ramifications across Europe and North America. (Book summary : Gallimard, Foreign Rights)

  • Prix des cinq continents finalist.
  • 2022 bestseller lists in Québec : leslibraires.ca, Renaud-Bray bookstores, Archambault bookstores, Chapters/Indigo bookstores (Quebec, summer 2022), amongst others.
  • Best books of the year list (Québec) : Le Devoir newspaper.
  • Best books of the year list (Québec and foreign) : Claudia Larochelle (avenue.ca, Radio-Canada, Savoir média).
  • Best books of the year list (Québec and foreign) : Marie-Louise Arsenault (Radio-Canada, Télé Québec).

Press clippings (for more, see in french : Revue de presse).

  • Eight years after Malabourg, Perrine Leblanc is back at the top of her art, more poised, more invested, more authentic than ever. Anne-Frédérique Hébert-Dolbec, interview and front page of the book section of Le Devoir newspaper: "Le grand retour de Perrine Leblanc", March 2022.
  • ★★★★ In war as in love, literature tends to the trap of artifice, of the overrated, of excess. In her third novel, Perrine Leblanc skilfully avoids the pitfalls, and combines these two great impulses of life with the distance and sobriety of those who have lived through vertigo, fear, and mourning, and who find in themselves the strength to build on it. In 1991, at the heart of the Northern Irish conflict, a writer in the IRA was executed on the outskirts of Belfast. In the wake of this event, a journalist falls in love with a young documentary filmmaker unaware of the danger her fascination for the new martyr puts her in. Between secrets, threats and fiery reunions, the author's writing follows the contours of her world and her characters until they merge, making the familiar blossoms in a story that is nevertheless extraordinary. Sublime. Anne-Frédérique Hébert Dolbec, "10 coups de coeur pour la saison chaude", Le Devoir  newspaper, June 4, 2022.
  • Since L'homme blanc, the Montrealer has impressed us as much by her in-depth research as by her pure and phlegmatic style. We feel like shouting genius. Since you are a bit far away, we'll just write about it. Coup de pouce Magazine, review by Laura Martin, April 2022 issue.
  • There is indeed something sharp, rough, and even cheeky ("baveux") about the narrative of this novel, which ultimately makes it my favorite book by Perrine Leblanc, interview with Chantal Guy of La Presse: "La paix, c'est fragile", March 15, 2022.
  • It's very dry, but it's beautiful. And [...] it's a great love story. Perrine Leblanc, I haven't read her two previous novels, but this one, I found it extraordinary. Arnaud Viviant, Le Masque et la plume, France Inter, March 13, 2022.